


Please Stop Crying in the Gender Neutral Bathroom

by hulksmashmouth



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Spideychelle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 05:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13474977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hulksmashmouth/pseuds/hulksmashmouth
Summary: There is someone crying in the gender neutral bathroom, and MJ doesn’t know what to do about it.





	Please Stop Crying in the Gender Neutral Bathroom

There is someone crying in the gender neutral bathroom, and MJ doesn’t know what to do about it. She should probably stay out of it, though, and her ironclad reasoning is twofold:

Reason the first: whether to interfere or not is absolutely, positively, none of MJ’s business. Obviously this person is hiding in the single private bathroom in the entire school—also the best option for handicap access and a gender-neutral safety, because obviously one bathroom should suffice for the entire school’s disabled and non-binary population—they don’t want to be bothered. They’ll only feel worse if she interferes, and the last thing she wants is to made someone who’s already upset over something feel even worse.

Reason the second: she thinks it might be Peter Parker in there.

Both of these reasons have her in a paroxysm of hesitation outside the door rather than fleeing immediately. If it’s some random looking to be left alone then she should give them their privacy; if it’s Peter Parker having a quiet breakdown she shouldn’t allow herself to care. Peter Parker is off limits. Because Peter Parker looks at her and the pit of her stomach turns into a hot pool of molten lava, and has done since the moment she transferred to this hell school the second week of freshman year and he offered to show her where their shared Biology class was. 

Leaning against the wall as if waiting her turn for the private sanctum, she shoots a hostile glare at anyone who looks like they might be thinking about waiting after her. There’s a hand-written sign on the wall next to her that says _PLEASE STOP VAPING IN THE GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOM_. No one knows if it’s graffiti or not, since there’s an obscure indie song by the same name, but also it’s a very legitimate concern re: the only private bathroom on campus. She can’t help leaning in a little to see if she can determine who’s in there. Whether or not it’s Peter Parker shouldn’t be of any concern, her brain knows, but her raging hormones (she will not say her  _heart_ , that is  _so corny_ ) need to know for reasons other than  _Science_. 

Maybe it’s because he left a piping cup of tea in her locker last Thursday, when they had both been up all night studying for their developmental biology exam. Maybe it’s because he never questions why she sits at the opposite end of his lunch table instead of actually joining him and Ned. Maybe it’s because he’s just generally the sweetest and most considerate person she’s ever met and he doesn’t deserve to feel this bad about anything.

His uncle died last year. MJ knows this. It was around this exact time of year, actually, in the springtime, right after he was visited by the puberty fairy. Every girl in the freshman class—herself excluded, because she has a little thing called  _tact_ , thanks—had swooned a little over his suddenly sexy stack of man-pain when it happened. 

Then, a tiny voice comes from under the crack, so quiet even she can barely hear. “— _shit_.” Her heart starts to race so fast her face flushes and breath comes short.

It’s definitely Peter Parker in there. 

So there are two options: she can leave or she can test the door. Maybe three options, if she includes waiting for him to come out but pretending she didn’t hear anything. None of them feels particularly good for myriad reasons—leaving and pretending she didn’t hear makes her feel shallow and selfish, going in and acknowledging something is wrong means exposing her vulnerable underbelly—but she’s running out of time. He’s pulling himself together with lots of sniffling noises and running water. The handle is a shock of cold metal against her palm as she presses it. It miraculously turns and the door swings open.

His head shoots up as she pulls the door closed and locks it behind her, and for a good minute neither of them says anything at all. Just…stare. At each other. In the only bathroom on campus with a locking door. There are _connotations_.

“H-hey,” he says, quickly wiping at his eyes as if there’s any hope in the world of hiding what was just going down in here. “MJ. D-don’t you—hey, ever heard of knocking?” 

And he tries to smile at his own joke, the stupid adorable loser. MJ didn’t even plan on coming in here, so she has no idea what to say to him, either. No witty comebacks occur.

“W-we watched Smoke Signals in Film Appreciation,” Peter explains even though she didn’t ask, giving in under the pressure of silence. Maybe she has hope as a therapist someday, if it’s this easy. Either that or Peter has a soft spot for her, which would be. It would be weird. “They said this, there was a part with, um— _Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little?_  And it’s so stupid, I just totally…”  


Part of her wonders if Peter means his real dad or his uncle, or maybe both. The other part is trying really hard not to care and run. His breath is hitching again, his hand coming up to knead angrily at treacherous eyes. MJ puts down her bag as if someone else is controlling her limbs. She crosses the step and a half across the tiny tile room without thought, and puts her arms around Peter Parker. His face tucks instinctively into her shoulder and his arms wrap uncomfortably tight around her waist. She doesn’t know what to do except pat his back as he pulls himself together. There's nothing she can say; she and her mom are the ones who did the leaving when things went wrong with her dad.

“Sorry, MJ,” he mutters, voice muffled.  


“Shut up,” she replies, breathing the scent of his hair and trying not to tremble with his closeness. “As if I care. Just. It’s  _fine_. Just shut up.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am starting fresh with a new tumblr account by the same url as my default username here! There may be small discrepancies between tumblr and ao3, as the less polished versions are the ones I post on tumblr. There may be a few drabbles and things that I don't post here, though, so be sure to follow me if you want more content!


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